I quietly sat through the interview as an observer. During the debrief after, I fielded the following question, “Well, what did you think?”
I did have a number of thoughts. “At what point did you think you lost control of the interview?”
Joann looked puzzled, “Lost control?” I was silent. “What do you mean, lost control?”
“I was just curious if you noticed. At what point did the candidate begin to ramble and make stuff up?”
“Do you think he was making things up?” Joann asked.
“Oh, without a doubt I said. About two minutes into the interview, you asked him a question, and that is when it started. In fact, the manufactured stories continued through most of the interview.” I could see that Joann was beginning to fume, thinking the candidate had put one over on her. But I continued. “And all this fabrication was at your invitation. Do you remember the question you asked?”
“No.” Joann was definitely agitated.
“You asked him where he thought he would be, professionally, in five years. Anytime you ask a question about the future, you invite the candidate to speculate, fabricate and invent stories that you have no way to verify. It provides you with no useful information.”
I sat quietly. I knew this would take some time to sink in. -TF
The question is quite accepable…depending upon when it is asked during the interview, and depending upon what you may already know about the candidate.
John,
Thanks for the challenge to my thinking. This is an important issue, I will pick this up in tomorrow’s post to continue my thoughts.
Rather than assume that Joann lost control of the interview, look at the approach she was taking. It seems she took the nondirective approach to the interview which allows the candidate to have control. The question asked is justifiable, however, the reliability and validity of the answer is minimal.
Susan, do you find that using the nondirective approach achieves your objectives in the interview process? Do you interview using an outline to help you get to your goals & objectives?